Madeline Earp

Madeline Earp is senior researcher for CPJ’s Asia Program. She has studied Mandarin in China and Taiwan, and graduated with a master’s in East Asian studies from Harvard. Follow her on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

2012

Lhamo Tso has not spoken to her husband Dhondup
Wangchen since March 17, 2008. She,
their four children, and his elderly parents live in India, and hear of him only
when his sister visits the Xichuan Prison in Qinghai province, western China,
where he is serving six years. Through glass, he passes on the news: He's
contracted hepatitis, though the prison won't let the family pay for proper
medical treatment. He's working less -- promoted from 17-hour days in a brick
kiln to manufacturing acupuncture needles. His two lawyers have been told their
Beijing-based firm will be put out of business if they continue to work on his
case.

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China media analysts are looking to two significant events
to shape coverage this month: The anniversary of a failed uprising in Tibet,
and the annual meetings of China's top political bodies, the National People's
Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing.
Journalists at work in both areas attracted coverage of their own today--but from
vastly different angles.

Village elections taking place this weekend in southern
Guangdong province's Wukan illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of China's media
control. Censorship measures have not prevented strong domestic and
international coverage of the democratic process. But has official tolerance of
dissenting views increased since leaders cracked down on the attempted Jasmine
revolution last year? Or is Wukan not a real challenge to one-party rule, and
therefore OK to write about?

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Two months into 2012, all-too-familiar stories are emerging from
China's troubled minority regions, Tibet and Xinjiang. Following riots against
Chinese rule in 2008 and 2009, violence and its corollaries--increased
security and censorship--have become commonplace. Independent bloggers and
journalists who cover the unrest pay a high price: Over half the 27 journalists
documented by CPJ in Chinese
prisons on December 1, 2011, came
from ethnic minorities. Now we're bracing ourselves for the next wave of arrests.

Fiji's military leadership on Saturday lifted emergency
regulations it had been using to stymie the country's press since 2009,
according to local government websites. Good news? Maybe. Yet the regime still
restricts the media, and anyone else who dares to question the legitimacy of
the 2006 coup that brought its leaders to power--suggesting they are more
concerned about appearances than press freedom.